The 📝Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)Glossary is a compilation of associated terms.
Glossary
A
- 📝Abuse by Proxy – Manipulating allies to attack or isolate the victim on the narcissist's behalf.
- 📝Amor Fati Narcissist – Sees 📝domination and fate as justification for endless admiration-seeking.
- 📝Antagonistic Attachment – Emotional bonds maintained through volatility, fear, and intermittent reward.
B
- 📝Blameshifting – Making the victim responsible for the narcissist's abuse or failures.
- 📝Breadcrumbing – Giving minimal attention to keep victims invested without true commitment.
- 📝Boundary Erosion – Gradual dismantling of personal limits to gain control over the victim.
C
- 📝Cognitive Dissonance – Psychological distress from contradictions between abuse and affection.
- 📝Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) – Chronic trauma response from prolonged cycles of abuse.
- 📝Control by Chaos – Instability created to make the narcissist the victim's only "anchor."
- 📝Covert Narcissist – Narcissist who uses subtle, hidden manipulation under a shy or wounded mask.
D
- 📝DARVO – Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender when confronted with accountability.
- 📝Devaluation – Phase of belittling and contempt after initial idealization.
- 📝Discard – Abrupt abandonment once the victim is no longer useful.
- 📝Distortion Campaign – Systematic rewriting of events to frame the narcissist as hero and victim as villain.
- 📝Double Bind – Creating contradictory demands where the victim loses no matter what.
E
- 📝Emotional Hemophilia – Inability to self-soothe; extreme reactivity to small triggers.
- 📝Enmeshment – Blurred boundaries where the narcissist fuses identity with others.
- 📝Entitlement – Belief that their needs outrank all others.
- 📝Exploitation – Using others' empathy, skills, or resources without reciprocity.
F
- 📝False Emergency – Manufacturing crises to demand attention or compliance.
- 📝False Self – Mask of superiority hiding insecurity and emptiness.
- 📝Flying Monkey – Enablers recruited to enforce the narcissist's narrative.
- 📝Future Faking – Promising change or plans never meant to be fulfilled.
G
- 📝gaslighting – Distorting reality to make victims doubt memory, perception, or sanity.
- 📝Grandiosity – Inflated sense of importance or uniqueness.
- 📝Gray Rock Method – Survivor tactic: becoming emotionally unresponsive to deflect attention.
- 📝Grooming – Early manipulation to establish trust and dependency.
H
- 📝Hoovering – Attempts to "suck" a victim back into the relationship after discard.
- 📝Hypervigilance – Constant alertness to avoid triggering abuse.
- 📝Hypersensitivity – Extreme reaction to criticism, often through rage.
- 📝Hypocrisy – Expecting loyalty and empathy while giving none.
I
- 📝Idealization – Over-the-top praise and love-bombing at relationship start.
- 📝Identified Patient – Scapegoated family member who carries blame for systemic dysfunction.
- 📝Intermittent Reinforcement – Random affection mixed with abuse, deepening trauma bond.
- 📝Isolation – Cutting victims off from support systems to enforce dependence.
J
- 📝Jealousy Induction – Provoking insecurity by flaunting exes or rivals (triangulation tactic).
- 📝Jekyll and Hyde Switch – Sudden change from charming to cruel persona.
L
- 📝Love Bombing – Overwhelming attention to create dependency.
- 📝Loyalty Tests – Forcing humiliating demonstrations of devotion.
- 📝Lack of Empathy – Core trait; indifference to others' feelings or suffering.
M
- 📝Malignant Narcissism – Severe form combining NPD, sadism, and antisocial traits.
- 📝Mirroring – Copying values/traits to create a "soulmate illusion."
- 📝Mood Swings – Rapid shifts in emotion weaponized for control.
- 📝Masking – Adopting personas to hide predatory motives.
N
- 📝Narcissistic Injury – Wound from perceived criticism or rejection.
- 📝Narcissistic Rage – Explosive anger triggered by loss of control or supply.
- 📝Narcissistic Supply – Validation, attention, or power extracted from others.
- 📝Neglectful Abuse – Withholding care or affection as a form of control.
P
- 📝Pathological Envy – Resentment of others' success; drives sabotage.
- 📝projection – Attributing their own flaws or abuse to the victim.
- 📝Psychological Terrorism – Sustained covert abuse that instills fear and dependency.
- 📝Pity Ploy – Exploiting sympathy to avoid accountability.
R
- 📝Reactive Abuse – Victim's defensive outburst reframed as "proof" of instability.
- 📝Reverse Discard – Manipulating the victim to end things, shifting blame to them.
- 📝Rumination – Obsessive replaying of abusive incidents, especially post-discard.
- 📝Role Reversal – Casting themselves as the victim and the victim as the abuser.
S
- 📝Silent Treatment – Withdrawing communication to punish or control.
- 📝Smear Campaign – Spreading lies to damage the victim's reputation.
- 📝Splitting – Viewing others as all-good or all-bad, no nuance.
- 📝Supply Chain – Multiple sources kept available to meet ego needs.
T
- 📝Trauma Bond – Addictive attachment reinforced by intermittent abuse and reward.
- 📝Triangulation – Using a third party to provoke jealousy or competition.
- 📝True Self – Fragile, hidden identity beneath the narcissist's false mask.
- 📝Token Gestures – Occasional kindness to maintain control and confusion.